Meet Tamma,
a fictional Hebrew midwife apprentice to Miriam, the sister of Moses. The midwives play a pivotal role during this time in Israel's history, just a few short years before Moses returns to deliver God's people. One day while Miriam is away delivering a Hebrew baby, a servant boy to the wife of pharaoh's chief general arrives with an urgent message: his mistress is in premature labor and Miriam must come. Tamma has assisted in many births and is confident her God will help her through this one. It's the fourth pregnancy for Tarik's wife, but none of the babies have survived. This time, temple priests prophesied that the woman would bear a healthy son. But when this baby girl is stillborn, the household servants lie, blaming Tamma because she is "only an apprentice" who spurned Egypt's gods. Enraged, Tarik forces the young midwife to remain as a slave in his household and to bear him a son to replace his dead child. Through her ordeal, Tamma’s faith in the power of her God to deliver her people is tried. Can Israel’s God deliver her - and her son - from this terrible bondage? |
As many writers will tell you, often a spin-off novel is inspired by something a previous character does or says.
In Daughter of Scarlet, Salmon asks his mother to pray for the young harlot who helped him to escape as he completed his spy mission to Jericho. At first his mother is resistant because the young woman's life is not important. This Rahab is nothing more than a harlot in a city that God plans to destroy. But as Salmon begs for his mother's understanding and prayers, Vida lets down her guard. She hints at the hidden pain of her people - those closely guarded family secrets that were shrouded with shame and taken to the grave with their keepers after the Israelites left Egypt a generation earlier. She admits her belief that these secrets were the reason her people had to wander for forty extra years in the wilderness. Vida's comment stirred my imagination - what was it really like, especially for the women as slaves in Egypt? How did they deal with their fear and waning hope for deliverance? Daughter of Captivity is the first of three novels which explore the power of God to deliver and heal Israel from the impotence and shame of their 400 years as slaves. But more than that, it brings a powerful message to women and men today - God has not changed. He can deliver and will heal us from the pain and shame of those habits and hurts that enslave us! Bonnie |